Date:  Wed, 16 Apr 1997 13:11:21 -0400
From:  "(Dale F. Coye)" <Dfcoye[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM>
Subject: hypercorrect intervocalic /t/

I watched a fourth grade play yesterday in which the teacher had taught the
children to enunciate clearly, which often means they're supposed to aspirate
words spelled t wherever they occur (a practice I abhor because it doesn't
sound like Am. Eng. anymore). So words like letter, better, getting all had
aspirated t. I felt a certain sense of triumph when one girl also used one
in "shadow."

This reminds me of a friend who pronounced Beethoven with a voiced flap, and
as I think about it, it seems that in that word the normal (for me) aspirated
t is really quite unique when not after a morpheme boundary (pretext,
pretense). Are there any other intervocalic aspirate Ts?

Dale Coye
Princeton, NJ